Most people do not realize that their PC is slowing down until the system comes to a complete standstill and you are unable to perform even small operations, such as opening a software program or typing in a Word processor.

To speed up your PC and fix errors generating on it, you need to perform certain simple PC maintenance activities. Some of the most important maintenance activities are discussed here.

Malicious programs such as viruses and Trojans add several malicious files and registry entries to your system. These programs infect your program files so that they generate errors when you run them.

There are certain viruses that copy infected executable files that have names similar to legitimate processes, such as iexplore.exe, outlook.exe, and svchost.exe, running on your computer. These malicious executable files load when at system startup and eat up a lot of system resources, thereby slowing down your PC.

As there are way too many malicious programs prowling over the Web, it is important for you to opt for a dependable antivirus tool. You must use your antivirus tool to regularly detect and remove any virus that might have crept on to the system. Additionally, you must regularly update this tool with the latest virus definitions to ensure complete protection against the latest malware.

Get Rid of Spyware/Adware

Spyware and adware programs also considerably slow down your system. One of the most visible symptoms of spyware/adware infections is receiving frequent popup ads on your desktop, at times, even when Internet Explorer is not open. Usually, spyware programs stealthily track your computer and Internet browsing activity to collect data related to you and send it to external sources for advertising use. In the process, spyware programs consume a lot of system resources and slow down your PC.

Thus, your second step toward speeding up your PC is to invest in a good antispyware program and use this program to regularly scan and remove spyware from your system. Just like the antivirus tool, you must keep your antispyware updated with the latest definitions to ensure that you are protected against the latest spyware and adware programs.

Repair Registry Errors

The next task that you need to perform to increase computer speed and to fix errors occurring on your system is to resolve registry errors. Registry errors occur due to an accumulation of a large amount of unwanted and obsolete data that causes registry bloating and thereby makes the registry unstable. Because the registry controls all operations related to different hardware devices and software programs installed on your system, registry errors result in frequent Windows errors, such as driver errors and DLL errors, and your system slows down dramatically.

Therefore, the third tool that you need to speed up your PC is a registry cleaner utility. Registry cleaner utilities are quite simple to use and they enable you to perform registry clean up by detecting and fixing registry errors in just a few mouse clicks. Registry utilities also enable you to perform many other system maintenance tasks, such as defrag and back up the registry.

Clean your Hard disk

Last but not least, to increase computer speed, you need to clean up your hard disk. As a matter of fact, antivirus, antispyware, and registry cleaner tools also help you in cleaning up your hard disk as they remove unwanted data stored on the disk. In addition to this, you must clean up the hard disk by uninstalling programs you do not require and removing obsolete files and folders. Although you can manually scan and remove unwanted information from the disk, your Windows XP system is shipped with a Disk Cleanup tool that makes the task of cleaning your hard disk quite simple.

You can easily use the Disk Cleanup tool to remove all unwanted temporary files, empty the Recycle Bin, clean cookies, uninstall unwanted Windows components and other software programs, and delete obsolete System Restore snapshots.

After you have removed all unwanted data from the disk, defrag the disk using the Disk Defragmenter tool to further boost the performance of your computer.